tile. I had
never before seen these repulsive creatures, and, indeed, had never
heard of them.

I returned to the hut at noon, and to my surprise found a party of
thirty or more blacks camped under some Leichhardt trees. They seemed a
fairly healthy lot of savages, and were not alarmed when they saw I was
carrying a gun. I rode quietly up to them, and shook hands with two or
three of the bucks, who spoke a little English. They were, they told me,
from the Ravenswood district, which they had left some weeks ago, and
were now travelling towards the Burdekin, hunting as they went.

Some of them came to the hut with me, and I saw at once that they had
not taken anything of mine, though among other articles I had left on a
wooden seat outside were several plugs of tobacco. I gave them a plug to
divide, and then asked the most voluble of them how many cattle they had
speared.

"Baal blackfellow spear him cattle," he answered.* "What about that
young fellow bullock you been eat longa creek?" I inquired.

* Lit., "We blacks did not spear any cattle."

They assured me that they had not speared the animal, which they had
found lying at the bottom of a deep gully with a broken leg. Then
knowing it could not live, they had killed and eaten it. I was pleased
to hear this, and have no doubt the poor creatures told the truth.
They remained with myself and mate for a month, and proved of great
assistance to us in fencing and other work, and I learnt much valuable
bush-craft from these wandering savages, especially of their methods of
hunting and fishing. I shall now give the reader an account of some of
the happy days my mate and myself spent in this lonely spot.

II

A few days later my mate arrived with the dray, which we at once
unloaded, and then turned the horses out to feed and have a spell before
working them again. Every night since I had arrived a thunderstorm had
occurred, much to my delight, and already the once cracked and baking
flats were beginning to put on a carpet of grass; and indeed, in three
weeks it was eighteen inches high, and made a glorious sight, the
few remaining cattle eating it so hungrily that when night fell the
creatures were scarcely able to move, so distended were their stomachs.

Having started our aboriginal friends to cut down ironbark saplings
to repair the fencing, we first of all paid a visit to our nearest
neighbour, a settler named Dick Bullen, who lived ten miles away. He